Postcard from Devil’s Dyke: Myths, views and metalwork

Myths, views and metalwork

I walked part of the Southdown’s Way with friends and the path took us along the top of Devil’s Dyke. This chalk valley has steep sides, short grass and the view of the landscape looks like has been flattened by the effect of a telephoto lens.

I knew the story that the Dyke was dug by the Devil to flood the World. I didn’t know it was the Weald and that some of the earth went to form Mount Caburn and that the Dyke was unfinished when the Devil was distracted.

In the 1800s, the place had extra attractions; a camera obscura, an aerial cable car on metal supports that took sightseers across the valley and a funicular railway that took them up and down.

In Sicily, I once took a cable car down the volcano, Mount Etna, over an almost plant-less charcoal grey landscape. Etna was a workshop of Hephaestus, god of artisans, gold and metal work and the blacksmith to the Roman gods. I made a film Cable Car.

PS. In the garden, we follow the No Dig method!

#sussex #postcard